Crib Mattress Spring Turned American Flag

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I’m about to knock your socks off. Well, at least I’m going to try. This project made me feel so incredibly good inside. If you don’t mind, I would like to go back in time a little. It was 1957 and I wasn’t even thought of yet. My oldest sister, Diane, was a baby and my parents provided her with a beautiful crib to sleep in. I found this photo to show you. You have to look closely at the details of the crib. Check out those fancy curtains too :).

You can find Diane’s famous “baked baby back rib” recipe if you click on her picture.

The crib is made out of pine and it has parakeets as decorations on the headboard. 12 years after this photo was taken, I slept in this crib and I remember those parakeets. They are pastel colored and they spin around. I describe the crib in present tense because we still have the crib. Somehow, after all four of us children slept in this crib, my parents managed to save it. I ended up with it in my attic. I wanted to use it for our babies, but the spindles no longer met the current safety requirements. Still, after all of these years I kept it, not knowing what the heck I would use it for. Until now.

If you look up crib upcycles on Pinterest, you will find several ideas to recycle an old crib. From desks to photo displays, you’ll be amazed by some really cool ideas. I knew I wanted to come up with something clever, but it had to be something no one else thought of. Or at least I don’t think they have. If you have…please come forth and we can share stories 🙂 When we upcycle, recycle, whatever you wish to call it, we not only save money, but we help save the environment, we bring back memories, and we create a special piece that can be cherished for years to come because of it’s history.

So, originally I was going to see if this mattress spring could be used as a dog gate. I brought it down from the attic and realized there was no way it would work. Bummer. So I set the mattress spring up against the wall, and thought that if I left it there for a while I may come up with another idea. I was right.

My daughter was eating her b-fast at the kitchen table before school one day, and I was standing behind her staring at it. She was startled because she didn’t realize I was there. She asked what I was doing, and I just explained that I was “thinking”. At that instant it came to me that if I turned it horizontal, it took on the shape of a flag. Like this one above my “hutch turned tool bench” I purchased from Pottery Barn years ago:

(click on photo for tool bench project)

So then I thought, okay…I can paint it red, white, and blue and display it for the 4th of July. Cool! Well, maybe not so cool. It just didn’t sit well with me because I wasn’t sure the stripes would stand out. No WOW factor, ya know? Then I thought of the 13 stripes. I needed to count the rows in the mattress spring to see how many stripes it had. If it didn’t have 13 stripes like our American flag, this idea was headed no where. I quickly counted with my daughter. We were both amazed…there were 13 stripes-exactly. By this time Red was super fired up. My mind was turning so fast I couldn’t stop until I had a plan. Then, holy firecrackers! It came to me. RIBBON.

I purchased ribbon at Micheal’s with my 40% coupon, and yes, I used a lot of coupons. The lady was mean when I asked if I could use more than one. She said no, so I just got back in line and used another coupon. Again, and again. HA! Little did the mean lady behind the counter know what an amazing project she was holding up. Here she is…not the lady, the finished project.

My hubby actually fed the swans for me so they would hurry up and get in the photo…what a guy. They fell for it. His mate is behind the tree. Not my hubby’s, the swan’s. Pretty, huh? Obviously we can’t keep the flag outside, but she sure looked pretty out there in the sun. Here she is from our deck at a distance and both swans made this photo (my hubby is behind the tree):

You may be able to see my old pal “Trixie’s” grave site down there too. She was the best cat ever.

We ended up putting her on top of our mantel and look forward to sharing this story with our family and friends. When it came time for a title, I originally thought of “Made in the USA”, but then my Mom came up with the “Born Free” title. Thanks Mom, it’s perfect. I was born free, and I am a proud American.

By the way…

Today is Flag Day! June 14th, yep…Flag Day.

So, get your flags out, ok?

Now the question is, what should I do with the rest of the crib?

You never know what this redhead will think of next.

Next Friday & Saturday I have a special treat for you. While I’m taking a break, I have some lovely gals stopping by to fill in.

Oh, you know how much I love this!!! Such a creative and also nostalgic idea – so sweet. And I love that your Mom thought of “Born Free”. Just so awesome. Happy Flag Day and you guys have fun on vacation!!
xoxo

This is incredible! What a fabulous idea and it turned out perfectly! I don’t think modern-day cribs have springs like this any more, do they? Rats! If they did, Abigail would be out of that crib turned toddler bed and into a real twin sized one really quickly LOL! Still, you do find older cribs around so I’ll keep look-out for one! Hmmm….what to do with the rest of the crib? I’m sure you’ll come up with something spectacular! Hugs, Leena

Your story about the crib reminds me of a story of mine. When I was a little girl no more than 5 years old. I remember one of my aunts giving my parents a twin size, cast iron bed for me.The thing weighed a ton. At the time,this was 1965, the bed was over 100 years old and it was in sad shape. I remember seeing my parents sanding it down and painting it white for me. I felt so special to have my own grown up bed.My brother was 10.5 months younger than I was and we had always slept together.Well this bed went all over the world with me, as my dad was in the Army and we traveled a lot. I had it when I had my son in 1989.
In 2002,at 40 years of age my brother passed away unexpectedly along with 8 other family members and friends,including my cousin and her daughter from the aunt that had given me the bed when I was a child.Sometime after that her younger brother, also my cousin lost all of his possessions in a tornado in AL and he had 3 small children and a wife that also lost everything that they owned.I felt that it was only right that the bed that I had had the priviledge to own all of those years should rightly go back to him and his family so my husband packed it up in his pickup and took a lot of other items as well to my family in AL that had lost everything.They were very surprised and grateful to get the things that we sent to them from Northern VA to Western AL.It’s funny how things we have when we are children sometimes hang around for a very long time.I am now 52 and my cousin with the 3 children is about 40+.There is a lot more to the story but I will stop it for now as it can get really complicated, as if it weren’t enough already.I think you get what I am trying to say anyway. Take care! Enjoy your flag a sign of honor!Sincerely! Larose

Saw this at Infarrantly Creative and had to jump over and tell you this is probably the coolest project I’ve seen done in ages. Just really creative. Can’t wait to see what you do with the rest of the crib! p.s. is your header graphic by Miss Pickles?

Love this idea! I have a crib that I plan on making a chalkboard easel with the ends but could not for the life of me think of what to do with the springs….now I know what I can do (as long as I luck out and have 13 rows for the ribbon)!

I used my 75 year old crib frame as a queen sized headboard putting one crib side vertical in the middle of the two ends. It’s cool. The left over crib side is in my sewing room turned like a ladder to hold supplies using shower rings as hooks.

Hi Terry! Isn’t that photo amazing? I don’t remember that trip too much, but I do remember Chautauqua Lake?! Our parents had a blast and so did we. I miss you guys and think of you all often. I will let you know when we are home!

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